[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

I don't know about other orgs, but mine discourages very young alumnae from being too involved with the collegiate chapter. Certainly we were welcome to come down for recruitment and hold trays of punch and what-not, but being on an advisory committee while there are still women in the chapter with whom you were a collegian is a bit sticky. I definitely understand why they'd look for women further removed from college, or at least from different chapters, but it leads to a sense of "oh, we don't need you" followed by "please come back" four years later.

Also, I don't really feel like my region of the country is big into Greek life. Even as a senior in college I left it off of my resume because the odds of a hiring manager having negative stereotypes about greeks are pretty good.

Also also, I don't really know what the alumnae chapters are, outside of their support of the collegiate chapters. Social groups? Service groups? Professional networking groups? All of the above? There are several groups in the area, and I don't feel that any of them could explain that well what they offer.

The suggestion with my org is that you not advise until everyone who was active with you has graduated. That isn't a concrete rule because some chapters struggle with finding advisors and if they followed this as a rule all the time, some chapters wouldn't have anyone. But you are right about it being sticky.

Concerning what an alumnae chapter is, with us it just depends. They all have the same standard requirements in order to be and remain chartered (ex: one meeting per month, one Foundation related fundraiser or project per year, and x number of service events/opportunities per year.)

But the degree to which every chapter branches out from those standard events makes the chapter different. So every chapter has a different feel.

Example: The Big Metro Area Alumnae Chapter may have TONS of members in a variety of age groups. That leads to diversity of programming. They might consider the monthly chapter meeting to be just the "business" part of the sorority. They have bi-weekly young alumnae happy hour, a book club, a mom's group, a huge Foundation auction every year, you name it. So the chapter encompasses MANY different aspects of being part of an alumnae group.

In contrast: Small Town Alumnae Chapter might have a small number of members who are all in the same stage of life (ex: everyone is 40+, has a family, etc.) They might not see the need for having more than one event per month, and maybe their one meeting a month meets at the same local restuarant that they've been meeting at for years. Their one meeting might be more of a social event than anything else since everyone is busy with their families and doesn't have time to do much else.

Not saying that there is anything wrong with either type of chapter. i'm just noting that beyond our basic requirements, "what a chapter is?" tends to vary depending on who is in it.

It happens that people are looking for different things in chapters. I've seen Suzy Sigma bypass her local alumnae chapter for Chapter That's Over an Hour Away because it offers the level of activity that she is interested in.